Questions re building a router table

[LinuxRandal]

Assemble your table and mount it on some sawhorses. Play with the height until it is comfortable for you. Start with the table at just below elbow height. At that height your back is straight and your arms are at a comfortable angle.


bill

If that isn't one of those Mr Obvious suggestions that just slapped me silly......

I was taking the top over to dad and he was asking about heights.

Now I can give him an answer that is good, and make me look like I have some idea that I know what I am talking about.

[JimD]

My router table is 1/4 inch lower than my BT3100 whose top is about 38 1/2 inches. I am 6'2"+ and find it comfortable. I take the fence off the router table when I want to cut something big and use the router table as an infeed table. My assembly table is also my outfeed table. I have about 400 Ft2 but my shop is still tight for cutting up sheet goods.

My router table has two fixed casters and two legs. When I want to move it, I either lift the leg side or I use a little dolly that has a pin that goes into a piece of angle iron on the router table down low. My router table is heavy because it has a 3/4 plywood back as well as other structure. I put a home-made lift along the lines of one in American Woodworker a few years ago mounted to the back so it has to be heavy. My drawers are like Norm's. A lift adds a lot of accuracy potential and mounting the lift on the back lets you tilt up the top to change bits - very handy. My router table weights a couple hundred pounds or more so it doesn't move just because I am cutting something on it. I think locking casters would allow easier movement and be fine as long as the are high quality.

My router table is a composite of ideas from magazines and previous router tables I've made. My fence clamps to the edge of the top using short pipe clamps screwed to the fence. This has proven very solid and was inexpensive.

Jim

[mpc]

radhak's link shows a wheeled router table frame kit that has a mobile base setup quite similar to the Delta mobile base being clearanced at Lowes: two fixed wheels opposite two padded feet. On the rail with the feet is one center-mounted wheel and a couple metal cam plates to lift it up/down... that assembly looks virtually identical to the Delta setup 'cept it's blue, not black.

If that open frame is good enough for router table use, a full cabinet (much heavier) would certainly be more stable. As long as double-locking casters are used - not plain locking casters that only lock the wheel - or some sort of wheel+leg setup as the Woodpecker's example.

For reference/comparison sake Anna, my router table setup is the Freud tabletop that was clearanced at Lowes a couple years ago: a table, their funky fence setup, and the FT2000 router. No stand/cabinet... I just clamp the table to a pair of Ridgid Flip-Top supports when I need it. So far that's been plenty stable enough. And easily height adjustable! My "shop" is a 2-car garage that has 2 cars in it each night... all car tools and woodworking tools have to fit around the edges of the garage each night. By my own rule, "stuff" can't displace cars into the driveway overnight... it's how I force myself to put things away. Everything is mobile, collapsable, or easily dissassembled.

mpc

[Anna]

Thanks for all the tips, guys. Sorry about not replying sooner. We were out of town visiting family all day.

Gwyneth, I do have Bill Hylton's Router Magic, and thanks for reminding me. I completely forgot about it in going through my stack of magazines for router table plans. I was under the impression that Hylton's two books duplicate each other some, so I didn't bother to get both.

Radhak, I remember that particular gloat, and you still suck. I have the Woodcraft universal mobile base for my table saw base which works similarly to your wheel set. I don't think I want to use that one again, though.

In any case, the general consensus seems to be that casters are okay for this application. I want swivel casters for all four corners - I've tried using 2 fixed casters with 2 swivels, and maneuvering the base drives me nuts in my small shop. I'm ordering some heavy-duty, double locking casters from Grizzly.

I think I'll go with the same height as the table saw since I'm comfortable working with that height (about 33" to 34"). But then, being a woman, I reserve the prerogative to change my mind.

Thanks again for all the great ideas.

Anna